


Tofu Stir-Fry

by dunk_on_em (the_author_at_221B)



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Dan is the best, Gen, Gift Fic, Humor, Implied Relationships, Reluctant Bonding, Sharing a Body
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 00:12:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16608134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_author_at_221B/pseuds/dunk_on_em
Summary: Eddie takes a job that requires him to be separated from Venom for a bit.Venom cannot survive on their own, and Dan is the only one available to help.Lunch is a somewhat... tense affair.





	Tofu Stir-Fry

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tangerinee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tangerinee/gifts).
  * Translation into Русский available: [Жаркое из тофу с овощами](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16620461) by [erlander](https://archiveofourown.org/users/erlander/pseuds/erlander)



> This fic is a gift to tangerinee who has been nothing but supportive and lovely about all of my Venom fics. Thank you doll, I hope you like it! 
> 
> And I would love to hear what all of you thought if you have the time to review.

The silence in Dan’s kitchen was deafening. He raised his knife with a shaky hand and brought it down on the carrots he was cutting for his tofu stir-fry. The _snap_ of the root vegetable echoed through the apartment. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself.

**You are tense.**

“Holy _shit_ -” the knife skidded to the left, and would have nicked his hand had the inky blackness of Venom not covered it. “Don’t _do_ that!”

**Talk?**

“Don’t surprise me! You’re freaking me-” Dan put down the knife and ran a hand through his hair. “Didn’t Eddie tell you to lay low?”

**We are _angry_ at Eddie right now. **

Truth be told, Dan wasn’t exactly in the best of moods regarding Eddie Brock either.

* * *

 

Earlier today, Eddie had arrived, pounding on his door at _four_ in the morning. When he had woken up and groggily shuffled to the door, he was greeted with a hailstorm of explanations, and an entirely bizarre request.

“Listen, Dan, okay. _Hi_.”

“What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, listen.” Eddie had taken a deep breath. He had looked like he hadn’t shaved in a week, and his sweatshirt was covered in stains. His hair had bits of _something_ in it. Dan leaned closer to discover it was some sort of potato-based food. “I’ve been on the trail of some really bad guys. They’re doing experiments on the homeless – déjà vu, am I right? – and are basically watching their brains _deteriorate_ and doing studies of it and I _found them,_ I found their headquarters, I need to get _in,_ I need to take _pictures_ , I need to-”

Dan had held up a hand.

“Why are you here?” He wasn’t trying to be rude. He knew Eddie, and knew that he would continue to ramble unless stopped. It was endearing in a weird sort of way. Eddie held his hands to the side as if trying to retain his balance. He glanced to the side quickly.

“I’m asking for Anne, don’t worry – I told you.” He rolled his eyes. “We discussed this already, I’m not doing this again in front of Dan.”

He glanced back up at Dan, apologetic. “He’s a little fussy right now. Is Anne here?”

“No.”

The simple answer had shocked Eddie, actually causing him to take a step backwards.

“What do you mean no?”

“She’s at a law conference out of state.” Dan opened the door wider. “Eddie, why are you here?”

Eddie glanced at his watch.

“Shit, Venom, we’re running out of _time_. I know you’re mad but-“

Eddie had stopped, seemingly listening to whatever was going on in his head.

“Venom, he’s going to have to do! I’m _sorry_!”

“Eddie!” Dan snapped. “What is going on?”

“They’re doing experiments on innocent people, Dan. People are dying. Their headquarters – they’re full of MRI machines. They’re constantly running scans. Venom can’t be near those, but I need to go in. They can’t survive in our environment Dan, they need a host.”

“I don’t-”

“I need you to host Venom. For no more than 12 hours. We discussed this, they’ll be good. They promised. I’ll be back soon.”

“Why did you want Anne?”

“Venom likes her a bit more. But they’ll still be good. Right?”

Out of Eddie’s chest, a floating head had emerged. Dan had seen Venom before, but he couldn’t deny the fact that he was still scared now.

The white blobs that probably functioned as eyes narrowed.

**We promise.**

Dan swallowed, and black tendrils had swum forward.

 

* * *

 

And that’s how he found himself in this _situation_. He called in at work, claiming he woke up with a bug. That wasn’t entirely untrue.

**Rude.**

Dan shook his head, and picked up his knife. He continued to chop carrots. Breakfast had been a tense affair, but Venom had remained silent the entire time. All Dan could feel was a huge weight his stomach, making him eat a lot more Cheerios than normal.

He was making his lunch at 11 am because the gnawing hunger had become too much to bare. This was throwing off his _routine_. He threw the carrots into the pan, along tofu and other vegetables.

**Why did you say yes?**

Dan sighed.

“I don’t think I actually did.”

**You were going to.**

“I don’t think I was.”

 **We know what you _think_ , Dan. Your brain is – different than Eddie’s. But you experience much of the same stupid emotions, like justice, and good**.

“ _Good_ really isn’t an emotion.”

**It is stupid either way.**

“Neither is _justice_ when you think about it-”

 **That doesn’t matter.** The voice in his head got louder, and Dan suddenly wondered if it was a good idea to argue like he was.   **You wanted to help Eddie. You were going to say yes.**

Dan stirred his meal, it was starting to sizzle.

“Sure,” he relented. It was probably best to be as non-confrontational as possible in this situation. This thing was obviously dangerous in the right (or wrong, depending on how you looked at it), circumstance, and who knows if-

**We are not going to hurt you. You are important to Eddie for whatever weird reason.**

“Well, that’s good to hear.” Dan tried to smile, but it came out forced. The voice was giving him a headache, and it wasn’t even noon.

There was a slight flutter in his stomach, and the weight traveled up to his head. “Please don’t touch-”, he spat out, but the weight returned back to his stomach before he was able to finish his sentence. The pain in his head was gone, and when the voice spoke again it was softer.

**We did not touch. We fixed.**

Dan took a shaky breath.

“Thank you.”

The voice in his head made a noise that could only be described as a huff. Dan brought a bowl out of the cupboard and scooped some stir-fry up. He stopped mid scoop, struck with a thought.

“Do you want your own bowl, or -?” He trailed off, clearly not knowing how Venom ate.

**What _is_ that?**

“It’s a tofu stir-fry.”

**What kind of dead thing is in there?**

“I don’t. I don’t think you-. None. There is none of any kind of dead things.”

A face emerged from his shoulder, causing Dan to startle, dropping some tofu on the ground. The face peered into the pan.

 **There are some _alive_ things in there?** They sounded delighted.

“No. It’s vegetarian.”

He could feel something shifting through his head. It felt like Venom was searching for something. The head swiveled to face him.

**You only eat dead _plants_?**

Dan’s face drained of practically all color.

“Yes?”

Venom retreated back into Dan’s body without another word.

**Oh my _god_. **

Dan laughed. The exasperation in their voice was honestly funny.

“Eddie mentioned you having a thing for chocolate? I have some dark chocolate you can munch on if you like.”

The weight in his stomach swirled around, debating their answer.

**That would be nice.**

So Dan finished serving himself his meal of disappointing dead plants (he would have to tell Anne about that later, she’d find it funny too), and grabbed a couple of bars of chocolate off the shelf. He sat down at the table and placed the bars off to the side. Venom reappeared, snapping up all of the chocolate, paper and all, within seconds.

“Wow,” Dan mumbled. This thing must be eating Eddie out of house and home.

**Thank you.**

“No problem.” Dan began to eat, the two of them falling into a somewhat companionable silence. He had almost finished his meal when Venom spoke up again.

**You are not Eddie.**

Dan sighed again. “I know. He’ll be back soon.” He stood up to load the dishes into the dishwasher. “You’re just going to have to tough it out until then.”

**You are not a perfect host.**

“Great, thank you-“

**But you would be a good one.**

That stopped Dan short.

**You take care of people. You want to be good. That’s why you helped Eddie, and that’s why you helped us. You would be a good host.**

Dan chuckled, and closed the dishwasher.

“I think you’re pretty good yourself.”

**Even after the _incident_ in the MRI room?**

“You were scared. It happens to the best of us.” Dan kept his voice soothing. He was starting to see why Eddie liked this alien so much.

**We still want Eddie back.**

“Believe me, I’ll be counting down the hours too.” He laughed once more and patted his stomach. “I’m still hungry. How is that even possible?”

**Are tater-tots vegetarian?**

“Yes?”

Dan found his legs moving of their own accord to the door.

He found that he didn’t mind as much as he should.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you all dearly for reading! Find me on spockazilla.tumblr.com if you feel like yelling about Venom. 
> 
> I also recently finished a 3 chapter work called 'To Bleed Away' which is a symbrock angst fic with a happy ending. If you'd like, I'd love for you to check it out. 
> 
> If you have the time to review, I would be eternally grateful! Thank you again for reading!


End file.
